“I realized that a collection of posters would produce a fascinating insight into how the Bosnian people were addressed, by whom and to what ends during the conflict. I felt certain that it would also show us how they responded, intellectually and emotionally, to a conflict that eclipsed their lives.”
—From Bosnian War Posters, by Daoud Sarhandi.
, local graphic designers, illustrators and artists used their creativity to protest the conflict. Artists were working under “war circumstances,” which translated to “no paper, no inks, no electricity, no water. Just good will,” as commercial design team Trio Sarajevo noted on the back of postcards they created.
produced over the course of the war (April 1992 to December 1995) became an important voice of Bosnian resistance at a time when social media was nonexistent and graphic art was a vital part of mass communication. In 1998, Sarhandi-Williams and his research assistant, Alina Wolfe Murray, spent the year crisscrossing the war-scarred region collecting these pieces to produce this unique war chronicle. Posters have been used to protest or promote wars since pre-World War I. The book acts as a sobering reminder of their continued historical importance.